Intense and positive day of testing for Bautista at Misano

Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista was back on track at Misano today for a post-race test, where he was immediately able to identify the source of the issues that spoilt his race yesterday. It was a relief, but at the same time disappointing for Alvaro that his performance was affected by an external factor in the team’s home race.

Focus quickly switched to work on the suspension and brakes, Alvaro racking up 70 fast and consistent laps and finishing just six tenths off the best time of the day.

Alvaro Bautista (5th 1’33”877 – 70 laps) “I am pretty happy with this test. We have done a lot of work and it was good to find the root of our problem from yesterday. We put the same setting in the bike and I was able to ride consistently faster than in the race, back on the pace I was doing in practice, so the problem was clearly nothing to do with me or the bike. After that we continued to work tirelessly for the rest of the day, trying a new Showa front fork that gave some interesting results with some different settings. We also tested some Nissin brakes that gave me a smoother and more precise feeling in corner entry. We also tried some bigger discs that we plan to use at Motegi, where we had trouble last year, but we are still not sure about them. Overall we completed 70 laps with good general feedback that will be useful to us in the immediate future. ”

Fausto Gresini “A more than satisfactory day of testing. It was a monkey off our back to know that the problem in the race was not down to Alvaro or the bike, but something else that we were able to establish as soon as he went out. It’s a shame, but we don’t want to make a drama of it. We have worked hard today and we are pleased with the tests we have done. The suspension and brake tests we did were very encouraging for the future and we did some good lap times that were not a long way from the top two and very close to third and fourth. Overall it couldn’t have gone better and we can go to Aragon with confidence.”

Source: Gresini Racing